Ric Flair recently appeared on a Charlotte sports radio station to discuss a variety of topics, including what made him blow up in Europe on a recent TNA tour. The following is what he had to say about the incident:

"When you work for WWE, you are used to funds being available for you, if you think I am going to spend my own money, you are out of your mind. With Vince...like any other company that grows, you have growing pains, financial growing pains. When you agree to go overseas, you assume you are going like any other company and very simply, I wasn't informed differently. I said, 'Hey I need some money while I'm here. I'm not blowing up my credit card. Just pay me what you owe me every night' and they don't do that. I wasn't told in a very nice way so I stayed in the hotel for another day. I'm not knocking. I think TNA is great, just they have growing pains."

This is one of the topics that you can't really side with either. Ric Flair is known to blow all his money, and TNA is clearly cheap on their talent...still kinda funny. He bashes TNA for not paying them, then says he's not bashing them.

It's being reported that at the May 27th CMLL live event in Tijuana, Mexico, a new Rey Mysterio, Jr is expected to debut. Rey Mysterio, Sr, who is the uncle of the current WWE star Rey Mysterio, Jr, real name Oscar Gutierrez, has been training the new Mysterio for quite sometime and it's being said that he has a lot of potential. It should be noted that WWE star Rey Mysterio has given his blessing to the new Mysterio. It is customary in Mexico for famous wrestlers to allow a new talent to use a "Jr" version of their name in exchange for a cut of their earnings.

So, basically, "Rey Mysterio Jr" is the new Doink The Clown, where there will be many versions.

Dude. . .Doink the Clown was the fucking shit. The original one. I never knew how awesome he was until recently when I bought that Best of RAW DVD and he's all over the thing. Doink could actually wrestle like a motherfucker. I wonder why they never truly pulled the trigger on him for an Intercontinental or at least a Tag Team championship cuz like I said, he could wrestle plus in the era of the RAW DVD, WWF was moving towards the Attitude movement but it was still earlier enough where they could have pulled an edgy, psycho clown [noicp] gimmick off.

Dude. . .Doink the Clown was the fucking shit. The original one. I never knew how awesome he was until recently when I bought that Best of RAW DVD and he's all over the thing. Doink could actually wrestle like a motherfucker. I wonder why they never truly pulled the trigger on him for an Intercontinental or at least a Tag Team championship cuz like I said, he could wrestle plus in the era of the RAW DVD, WWF was moving towards the Attitude movement but it was still earlier enough where they could have pulled an edgy, psycho clown [noicp] gimmick off.

during that time there was alot of talk of putting him with Hogan apparently according to the guy who played the og doink

So, basically, "Rey Mysterio Jr" is the new Doink The Clown, where there will be many versions.

A lot of mexican (and japanese a well) wrestlers known for masks have people carry on the legacy, Tigermask comes to mind. Its far from a new practice.

Originally Posted by Quinton.

Dude. . .Doink the Clown was the fucking shit. The original one. I never knew how awesome he was until recently when I bought that Best of RAW DVD and he's all over the thing. Doink could actually wrestle like a motherfucker. I wonder why they never truly pulled the trigger on him for an Intercontinental or at least a Tag Team championship cuz like I said, he could wrestle plus in the era of the RAW DVD, WWF was moving towards the Attitude movement but it was still earlier enough where they could have pulled an edgy, psycho clown [noicp] gimmick off.

Doink was indeed doap and he played the character VERY well. Obviously he was too cartoonish to ever be WWF champ (wouldnt have bothered me though), but the fact he could wrestle and make a clown a believable gimmick, ESPECIALLY as a heel speaks to his talent.

This is gunna sound WildTWS, but does anyone else think Goldust could have been champ (WWF that is) at the height of his career in the 90s? Like if they made him a slightly more sadistic/evil within that character already.. I think he could have been, Goldust back then was a pretty good wrestler. Never was a fan personally, but looking back I think he could have.

It's the pain pills, yeah, it's gettin' real
Is it styrofoam?
You know what I be on
That's what I be on

The original "evil" Doink was one of my favorite wrestling characters from the 90's. Too bad the funny, happy Doink came along because it kind of overshadowed Matt Bourne's work, and he could cut a hell of a promo in that character.

This is gunna sound WildTWS, but does anyone else think Goldust could have been champ (WWF that is) at the height of his career in the 90s? Like if they made him a slightly more sadistic/evil within that character already.. I think he could have been, Goldust back then was a pretty good wrestler. Never was a fan personally, but looking back I think he could have.

I could actually see that. I've been trying to look up the list of WWF champions for Goldust's initial run from 1995-1999. I can't find it right now but I could see Goldust holding the main strap.

*shrug* I dunno how they'd get a program going with Bret. Michaels, I could see Goldust being obsessed with his good looks [nomaleman]. Sycho Sid. . .meh, I can't see that. The Undertaker & Mankind I could see. Steve Austin I couldn't see. The Rock I could see.

*shrug* I dunno how they'd get a program going with Bret. Michaels, I could see Goldust being obsessed with his good looks [nomaleman]. Sycho Sid. . .meh, I can't see that. The Undertaker & Mankind I could see. Steve Austin I couldn't see. The Rock I could see.

I could see him in a storyline with everyone but Sid. Stone Cold I could see Goldust like obsessed with everything Stone Cold does, almost stalkerish, challenging for the title, as the champ I just see him as this sadistic, creepy dude who keeps getting over on Austin in the most awkward and uncomfortable ways.

It's the pain pills, yeah, it's gettin' real
Is it styrofoam?
You know what I be on
That's what I be on

I dunno, maybe...in order to put Goldust with those guys they would have had to gone into some bizarre storylines, which back in that era wasnt unheard of

Thats what I'm saying, I mean... I remember Goldust with Ahmed Johnson, when he kissed him after doing that 10 punch shit in the corner and his gold lipstick was left on Ahmed's lips, thats fucking weird, and creepy. Make Goldust a lil more sadistic (I mean lets face it, thats not that hard to do with the whole gimmick, not to mention a signature move of his was kicking guys in the balls) and you got another top guy there.

It's the pain pills, yeah, it's gettin' real
Is it styrofoam?
You know what I be on
That's what I be on

Mankind/Goldust would have been interesting too, especially the ollld Mankind, would be the creepiest back and forth ever. But of course they'd have the "Miss Foley's Lil boy" Mankind" in the storyline with a heel Goldust most likely.

It's the pain pills, yeah, it's gettin' real
Is it styrofoam?
You know what I be on
That's what I be on

Jay, what do you think about it? You think Goldie could have been champ?

I def. would have liked to see Goldust as champ. D00d's first run in the company was pretty awesome, and given characters like Mankind (original), Kane, HBK, etc. the dynamics in those feuds would have been nuts.

Like Quinton said, he could be obsessed with HBK's looks, he could fuck with Mankind's head about his past, he could mindfuck Kane about the mask and since Goldust's character was so effeminate, he could have been "attracted" to Stone Cold and cut a bunch of fucked up "big, brawny Steve" promos.

Even someone like Bret vs Goldust would be interesting, since they could focus on how Bret can't handle the mindgames or something.

what the fuck was that era of Goldust man? I never knew he could have gotten creepier than his first initial run but that Goldust is disgusting and was really pushing the bar for shit they could show in front of kids. think it was the drugs?

This is one of the topics that you can't really side with either. Ric Flair is known to blow all his money, and TNA is clearly cheap on their talent...still kinda funny. He bashes TNA for not paying them, then says he's not bashing them.

wtf? so, Rey Mysterio is just a title? Not a name?

kinda like there are more than one la parka, psycosis,ect the company probably still has some rights to the name since his uncle(rey mysterio) still works there besides seeing la park(the la parka who was in wcw) vs la parka I've seen nicho(the psycosis who was in wcw) take on psycosis lol

For what it's worth, reports state WWE is looking into bringing some managers back into the fold.

Anyway, there seems to be the start of an awesome new Superstar-Manager pairing. Tyson Kidd and Michael "PS Dok MoreOfANiggerThanYouAre Hendrix" Hayes.

Hayes can cut a sick promo and dance; two things which can get someone over, and two things Tyson cannot do. And I see more potential in this than the Diesel-HBK shit they tried with Jackson Wackdrews.

Tyson is a really good entertainer with tremendous athletic prowess, and was at his best IMO as the cocky heel in WWECW with Natalya as his manager.

Hopefully Hayes can help elevate Kidd like he did with the Hardy brothers back in the day. Maybe add Trent to the group, as he's really underrated.

He never did recoup from that either. He was funny during the tourettes skits, but still not taken seriously. I think Dustin is gifted in the ring as well. Shame they don't use him more. Brother vs Brother would be good.

I would say that if they wanted to push both Daniels and Sin Cara..... those two should be in a long term fued.

It would help both out so much. let them fued with Chavo for a few weeks..... and start a best of 7 series somehow. There match tonight was so dope........ Kinda like Benoit and MVP I think It was, but it would just highlight the shit out of those two, with room to utilize Chavo and possibly others, but If it brings out more like the Smackdown match , then bring it on.....carry it thru Summerslam or Survivor Series, but that has alot of potential

This reminds me of that big list of stupid things that WCW did, where it said that the polls on the WCW website were fixed and how Hogan used them after that series of matches to try and show upper management that people like Billy Kidman weren't draws.

And that shit was years ago. He doesn't have anything recent or credible to add now in response.

Funny Hogan says that, like he didn't whine about that up and down in his book.

It's the pain pills, yeah, it's gettin' real
Is it styrofoam?
You know what I be on
That's what I be on

I don't remember it that well, but from what I recall Kidman came off looking stupid in
the Hogan feud, even with his "wins".

Also, Hogan went over in the blow-off and right back into title contention while Kidman went back to being a jabr0ni, essentially putting both back to exactly where they were before the feud, making the entire thing pointless. I think it was the same PPV with the human torch match where Sting's stunt double wasn't even wearing the same attire.

wasnt that during the new blood/millionaire club angle? didnt they kill it shortly after the hogan/kidman series?

That was the angle. They really dropped the ball with it. When you put a young guy up against someone like Hogan the only way to get the young guy over is to let them get one or two clean, legitimate wins. If you make him look like a fluke then that does absolutely nothing to get him over.

yeah i think the angle itself was a good idea, but from what i can remember it was booked pretty poorly, plus putting kidman with hogan was dumb, kidmans like 150 lbs, they should have guys like jindrak or o'haire with him